The invention relates to an apparatus for receiving an object, in particular a microtitre plate, an arrangement for transporting and for receiving such an object and a method for their operation and can be used in particular in the area of laboratory equipment for chemical, biological and medical investigations.
It is known that microtitre plates and the like can be placed on support surfaces and then processed, for example samples being delivered into the individual wells or removed from them by means of an automatic pipetting apparatus. The microtitre plate must be very accurately positioned for this purpose.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,289 discloses an apparatus of the generic type in which the support surface rests on the base of a rectangular depression, with compression springs which are arranged at two side walls at right angles to one another and which press the microtitre plate against the two respective opposite side walls, which act as a stop, and thus position said microtitre plate. In another apparatus described in the same publication, the support surface is arranged on a displaceable slide. After the microtitre plate has been deposited, said slide is pushed by a compression spring against a stop which is formed by three stationary pins engaging short oblique slots in the slide. The microtitre plate reaches the stop formed by the pins at an earlier time and is thus pushed against a clamping part elastically held on the slide and is clamped between said clamping part and the pins.
In the case of the luminescence analyzer described in WO-A-99/04 228 a sample support is received by an orifice in a slide and is pressed by two clamping parts which can move at right angles to one another and which, when the slide is moved in, are pushed free from a stop and by spring force against those sides of the sample support which are at right angles to one another, against the respective opposite edges of the orifice and is thereby positioned.
In the apparatuses described, the clamping parts are either in the way when the microtitre plate is deposited and impair the reliability of deposition and positioning thereof, or they have to be separately controlled in a relatively complicated manner.
It is the object of the invention further to develop an apparatus which receives an object, such as a microtitre plate, so that it is accurately positioned between a stop and a displaceable clamping part and is held in its position in such a way that, when the object is deposited and received, the clamping part can be pulled back by pressure from above so that it does not hinder the process. This object is achieved by the features in the characterizing clause of claim 1.
The advantages achieved by the invention are in particular that the object can be brought safely and reliably into an exactly defined position and held there with moderate control effort. There, it can be subjected to operations for the successful performance of which accurate positioning is essential.
The design of the apparatus according to the invention is very simple and requires only a few moving parts. Particularly advantageous is the combination of an apparatus according to the invention with a gripper which is suitable for transporting and setting down the object and at the same time controlling the apparatus, to give an arrangement according to the invention for transporting and for receiving an object according to claim 10. Such an arrangement permits operation according to the method of the invention according to claim 11, in which the positioning of the object is initiated simultaneously with the setting down thereof, without additional measures and further control effort being required.